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AUTHOR AGER , JOHN CURTIS TITLE: EMANUEL SWEDENBORG PLACE: [PHILADELPHIA] DATE: [18 Restrictions on Use: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES PRESERVATION DEPARTMENT Master Negative # BIBLIOGRAPHIC MICROFORM TARGET Original Material as Filmed - Existing Bibliographic Record ,*< t 938.94 ^ J hn C utVv'5.-; ifSS"- 1 f / f] ^^ Emanuel Swedenborg Nar S 32 p ( American new church tract ^ and pul?lication society cTractsi) • No title-page No 2 of a vol of pamphlets t L. 33ri(> o FILM SIZE: >_ IMAGE PLACEMENT: lA DATE FILMED: _l/jl TECHNICAL MICROFORM DATA REDUCTION RATIO:__iLH IB IIB '^^ _ __ INITIALS__i7il/ HLMEDBY: RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS. INC WOODBRIDGE. CT Association for Information and Image Management 1100 Wayne Avenue, Suite 1100 Silver Spring, Maryland 20910 301/587-8202 Centimeter 12 3 4 lllllllllllllllllllllllllillllillllll Mil Inches iri 5 iiiliiii 10 11 12 13 14 15 mm 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 1 iiil | iiil[iiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliii|lm 1 1.0 1^ 2.8 ■ e° ,„ „ 4.0 IS. 1.4 1 ^-^ 2.2 2.0 1.8 1.6 I.I 1.25 MPNUFnCTURED TO fillM STfiNDRRDS BY fiPPLIED IMAGE- INC. . Jh M. Blfl^bth Series. If o. 14L ii\ "'^'5^.^ Zl in the ©ittr of |Uw ||<»vU ifei^axg ^ ,1 EMAITUEL SWEDENBOEG. BY THE KEY. J. C. AGEB. Emanuel Swedenborg was born in Stockholm, Sweden, on the twenty-ninth of January, 1688. His ancestors, as far back as they can be traced, were mainly Swedish miners. His grandfather, Daniel Isaksson, gained considerable wealth by developing a deserted copper mine near Fahlun. He is said by his son Jesper to have been " honest, far from worklly ])ride and luxury, and bent on speaking the truth/' He had implicit faith in Providence, and believed that his undertakings were prospered for his chil- dren's sake. This he impressed upon his children by saying frequently at meals, "Thank you, my ohiklren, for this meal ; God has given me food for your sakes.'* His wife was equally devout. Jesj^er said of her, " My mother was to me all that Monica was to Augustine." The five sons of these parents, according to a cus- tom of the time, adopted the surname Swedberg, from the name of the family homestead, Sweden. The second son, Jesper, was born in 1653. His hereditary piety was deepened and confirmed by a 2 EMANUEL SWEDENBORG. wonderful escape from death by drowning in I118 sixth year. His literary tastes and love of religious truth were early developed. At thirteen he was sent to the university town of Upsala, but after three years was removed to Lund, where he completed his literary course, and then returned in 1674 to Upsala for his theological training. Six years later, in 1682, after several years' service as parish preacher, he re- ceived at Upsala the degree of Master of Philosophy. The same year he was appointed chaplain of the King's Life Guards, and the next year (1683) mar- ried Sara, daughter of Albrecht Behm, Assessor of the Royal College of Mines. The following year ho was granted a year's furlough, which he spent in travel in England and on the Continent, forming many valuable acquaintances, and acquiring useful knowledge. On his return, he devoted himself zeal- ously to his duties as chaplain, and also officiated frequently as court chaplain. It was while residing at Stockholm in this capacity that his third child was born, on the 29th of January, 1688. He named him Emanuel, "convinced," he writes, "that chil- dren ought to be called such names as will awaken in them and call to their minds the fear of God and everything that is orderly and righteous." As court chaplain, Swedberg came into intimate relations to the king (Charles XL), who soon dis- covered the young man's ability and zeal and learn- ing. He appointed him on a commission to revise the translation of the Bible, and the work was EMANUEL SWEDENBORG, 8 ^ speedily completed. In 1690 he assigned him to an important country parish. Two years after, he appointed him Professor of Theology in the Univer- sity of Upsala ; the next year. Rector of the Uni- versity; the next year. Dean of the Cathedral at Upsala, and First Professor of Theology ; and two years later, in addition to these duties. Superintendent of the Swedish Churches in America, London, and Portugal. Six years after this, Swedberg was ap- pointed Bishop of Skara, upon which office he en- tered in 1703, and held until his death in 1735. In 1719 his family was ennobled, receiving the name of Swedenborg. The biographer of Bishop Swed- berg, in the Swedish " Biographical Dictionary," en- dorses the estimate of an earlier writer, that he was " a man who, if he had lived a few hundred years earlier, might have increased the number of Swedish saints, and whose learning, industry, exemplary life, good intentions, and zeal for God's glory deserve to be venerated even by a more enlightened century." Of the early years of his son Emanuel but little is known. He was educated at Upsala, where from his fourth to his fifteenth year his father resided as Professor and Dean. After his father's removal to Skara in 1703, he continued at Upsala until 1709; when, at the age of twenty-one, on leaving the uni- versity, he printed the thesis he had read in the uni* versi ty hall, an essay on morals, consisting largely of extracts from Seneca and Publius Syrus Mimus, with Swedenborg's comments thereon. Late in life, he 4 EMANUEL SWEDENBORQ. answers Dr. Beyer's inquiries about his childhood as follows: "From my fourth to my tenth year, I was constantly engaged in thought about God and salva- tion and the spiritual affections of men ; and several times I disclosed things in my discourse that as- toni.shed my father and mother and made them say that angels must have spoken through my mouth. From my sixth to my twelfth year, I took delight in talking with the clergy about faith, contending that love is the life of faith, and that this vivifying love is love to the neighbor; also that God gives this faith to every one, but that it is accepted (mly by those who practise that love. My only belief at that time was that God is the Creator and Preserver of nature, aud that He endows man with under- standing, good disposition, and other resultant quali- ties. Of the belief that God the Father imputes the righteousness of His Son to whomsoever and whenever He pleases, even to the impenitent, I knew nothing, and had I heard of such a faith, it would have been then, as now, incomprehensible to me." And elsewhere he says, " From my earliest years I could never admit into my mind the thought of more Gods than one; I have always accepted and still retain the idea of one God only." With a father so full of zeal as a religious teacher, and serving, during this whole period, as an instruc- tor in dogmatic theology in a Lutheran university, how can we account for this entire absence from Swedenborg's mind of all the distinctive features of / I » is EMANUEL SWEDENBORG. 5 the old theology, except by a Providential prepara- tion from his earliest years for his future work ? Leaving the university in 1709, at the age of twenty-one, he spent a few months at home, busying himself with music and some other useful pursuits, and preparing for the foreign tour by which a uni- versity training was then supplemented. Mathe- matics was the chief study to which he intended to devote himself while abroad. In 1710 he sailed for England, where he remained about two years and a half. He gave no time to mere sight-seeing, but sought the acquaintance of the best mathematicians and astronomers and entered heartily into their work. One of the chief problems of the science at that time was an easier and surer way of deter- mining the longitude at sea. Flamsteed at Green- wich was working at this problem, and Swedenborg at once took it up, and gave much thought to it for several years. His other favorite study was mechanics. By lodging with skilful artisans, and frequently changing his lodgings, he acquired a knowledge of watch-making, cabinet-making and mathematical instrument making. The makers of globes refusing to sell him the sheets to be mounted in Sweden, he acquired the art of copper engraving, and engraved the plates for a pair of globes, which he sent home to have sheets printed therefrom and mounted. He made himself sufficiently familiar with all improvements in scientific instruments to be able to reproduce them at home. When overtaxed « EMANUEL SWEDENBORG. by his scientific studies, he devoted himself to poetry. With this variety of studies he was never idle, and gave little time to society. After two years of hard work in England he went, in 1712, to Holland, and thence to France. In Leyden he acquire€r-plate engravings. During thitt and the two following years ^x numWrs were induud, when it was disoootiniied, partly from lack of support and ^^rtly bocsusc of Swcdcnborg's absorption in other pursuit*. It« publuution, how- ever, led to important rcsiuha. It brouj^ht Sweden- borg into inlimate relations with Polhem; and on (lie return oT (he king, Cl»arics XII., from bb long exile, at the end of 1715, when Ihj dcvntod fiimsclf, for a brief period, to projcdH for the improvement of his country, Polhein becunie his cliicf adviser. Charles wn8 hinisdf an accomplbhed mathematidan and mcchanictan, and reaptX'Ctated Swoden- 8 EMANUEL SWEDENBORQ, III borg's abilities and acquirements; and was pleased with his efiforts to advance those sciences in his native country. He at once appointed Swedenborg to tlie office of Assessor Extraordinary in the College of Mines. This is the department of the Swedish gov- ernment that controls and administers one of the most important industries of the country. It ap- points and directs the various officers that superin- tend the mining and smelting business, and decides all questions of administration, and all lawsuits in which mining interests are involved. The king's warrant is dated December 18, 1716. It assigns Swedenborg to the special duty of assisting Polhem in his engineering works, and of advising the College in respect to all mechanical matters- Thus Swedenborg at the age of twenty-^ij^ht was started on his public career. He enterctl upon ttio duties of his office with his characteristic fuithfulncff and zeal. He tried to master not only ([xa pFBM!tiTalU of Frcn^ a 8cal in Uie U|>j)er houM of the Swcsli^h Parliament, and opei>ed to him a ucvr field of af!tivity, in which ho displayed the same eomprvhcnslve wiiodom that clir^ rioter ised \m s«cientilic and |»hi]o6ophkal aindicdw Througli- out hiM life he was a firm advocate of oonstittittonal governnM'nt. In his later years, in one of his memo- rials to tJie DJft^ rwpixrting the i>rrri)gativ<» of the CrowD» he declarer that, *^ do otie lims tike right to leave hiH life ai>d pro|>crty in the abeolute power of 10 EMANUEL SWEDENRORO. *t any individual, for of these God alone is master, and we are merely his stewards in this world. . . . Besides, I can see no difference between a king of Sweden who possesses absolute power and an idol, for all turn themselves heart and soul as well to the one as to the other; they obey his will and worship what passes from his mouth." Twenty-five years before, he had expressed his admiration of the re- publican form of government he had found in Hol- land, as being " the surest guarantee of civil and religious liberty, and a form of government more pleasing in the sight of God than that of absolute empire." In a republic, he adds, no undue venera- tion and homage is paid to any man, but the highest and lowest deems himself the equal of kings or emperore. This form of government puts men into right relations to God, who is alone worthy of ven- eration ; while absolute governments foster deceit and hypocrisy even in religion. These, in brief, were the political principles that Swedenborg advocated during his more than fifty years of active membership of the Swedish Parlia- ment. He was, nevertheless, always held in high esteem by the royal family, for he was never a par- tisan. Count von Hopken, the most eminent states- man of Sweden at that time, and for many years prime minister, in a letter to a friend, says of Swe- denborg: "He possessed a sound judgment upon all occasions; he saw everything clearly, and ex- pressed himself well on all subjects. The most solid EMANUEL SWEDENBORG. 11 and the best written memorials presented to the Diet of 1761 on matters of finance were from his pen." In these memorials Swedenborg contended for a sound currency and the fullest satisfaction of all public obligations. It is also worthy of note that a century and a quarter ago he was an earnest advo- cate of measures to check intemperance. On the fly-leaf of one of his books the following was found in his handwriting : " The immoderate use of spiritu- ous liquors will be the ruin of the Swedish people." He proposed several measures to the Diet to impose restrictions on the manufacture and consumption of spirits, also a law to suppress tap-rooms or grog- shops, by prohibiting all conveniences for drinking in company or lounging where liquors were sold. He declared that if the consumption of whiskey could be done away with altogether, it would pro- mote the country's welfare and morality more than all the income that could be realized from so per- nicious a habit. From this outline of his views on political, eco- nomical, and social questions, let us return to his literary work, which was incessant. On the death of Charles XII., at the close of 1718, Swedenborg\s engineering duties, to which he had been assigned, came to an end. He was as yet only an extra Assessor in the Board of Mines, an office without a salary. Nevertheless, he took up at once the duties of the office, and only a few weeks after the death of Charles, after spending the 12 EMANUEL SWEDENBORQ, Christmas holidays at home, we find him starting on a tour through the mining districts, from which he returned in February to Stockholm, to attend the meetings of the Board. The summer he spent in a careful study of smelt- ing and the nature and treatment of fire. In No- vember he presented to the Board an elaborate paper minutely describing the Swedish methods of smelting, and their defects and possible improve- ment, and a plan for a model furnace. He also proposed certain important improvements in stoves, by which a great economy of heat could be secured. He also included vital heat in his investigations, and prepared an elaborate treatise on the nature of the vital forces, which he presented to the Royal Board of Health. His mining studies led him to a study of the facts of geology. Only a few had yet dared to question the Scriptural account of the creation in six ordinary days. The stratification of the rocks, the position of marine fossils far inland, and like phenomena, indicating a gradual formation of the earth's surface, were all accounted for by immediate creative acts. Swedenborg gathered up conclusive proofs that Sweden was slowly rising from the ocean, and showed how all these disputed phenomena could be adequately explained by slow aqueous action. This was tlie strongest proof that had yet been offered of those earliest principles of geological science, which a few advanced students were begin- ning to recognize and contend for. EMANUEL SWEDENBORG, 13 This description of a year's work (1719) indicates the fertility of Swedenborg's mind. There was not a year out of the next twenty-five of his life that was not equally, and some were far more, productive. A comj)lete statement of wliat he wrote durincr that time, even in the briefest form, would cover several pages. The above-mentioned studies naturally led to the study of the nature and constitution of matter. We need to remind ourselves tliat at this time what we call modern science hardly existed. This was especially true of those sciences that treat hf the constitution and laws of matter and force. The theory of the four elements, earth, air, fire, and water, had not yet been displaced. Swedenborg was dealing especially with two of these, fire and earth; and during the next year (1720) he went through all the literature he could find in the libraries of Sweden that discussed these problems, and wrote an extended treatise on the nature of matter, only a part of which was published. He now felt the need of more extended study and conference with foreign students. From July, 1721, to July, 1722, he spent in Holland and Germany, visiting the principal mines and centres of learning, and gathering up-all available knowledge and experience that would throw light on his studies. At Amsterdam he published a work on the nature of matter, in which he attempts to account for the differences in substances by the varying geometrical arrangement of their particles. He published at the same time several minor 14 EMANUEL SWEDENBORG, treatises, and soon after, at Leipsic, published a volume of essays, relating to geology, mechanics, and chemistry. During the next eleven years (1722-33) Sweden- borg's time was devoted, without stint, to his official duties. He tried to introduce into Sweden such im- proved methods in mining as he had observed abroad. But there was not much intelligent enterprise or ap- preciation of exact science in the administration of the Swedish mines; and Swedenborg, in this as in other things, was in advance of his times. This absorption of his time by his official duties did not, however, interrupt his studies. Not much was published ; but two extensive treatises, one on the magnet, the other on the treatment of metals, written during this period, are among his unpub- lished manuscripts. The main results, however, of this eleven years' study are embodied in the three folio volumes "Philosophical and Metallurgical Works,'' published at Dresden and Leipsic in 1734. The first of these volumes is an exposition of Swedenborg's theory of creation. His theory of motion is first demonstrated philosophically and mathematically. This theory of motion is then ex- emplified in the phenomena of magnetism. Finally, the origin of the universe is explained in accordance with the laws thus established. The other two volumes are practical treatises on the mining and working of iron and copper. They were at once received by metallurgists as standard \ EMANUEL SWEDENBORG. 15 fTorks, the treatise on iron was translated into French, and the volumes were quoted and commended else- where, and secured for Swedenborg a European reputation as a mining engineer. A treatise on the Infinite, also published at this time, completes Swedenborg's purely speculative studies. It is an attempt to apply his philosophy to the relations between the Infinite and the Finite, God and Man, Spirit and Matter, Soul and Body. Swedenborg had left Sweden in May, 1733, to complete these works and see them through the press. He returned in July, 1734; and for the next ten years, apart from his official duties, devoted himself to the study of the human body, which he recognized as the microcosm in which all the laws and processes of nature are concentrated and exemplified. Swedenborg, in these studies, gave little or no time to original investigation. He felt himself better med for digesting facts already established than for experimental observation. He also wished to escape all the bias of mind that springs from pride of discovery. For these reasons he gathered his facts mainly from existing authorities. The list of authors cited by him shows how thorough these studies were. And when to this exhaustive study and research we add the composition, during these ten years, of enough to fill ten or a dozen large octavo volumes, we have an amount of labor that can hardly be paralleled in literary history. It is impossible in this brief sketch to give an IQ EMANUEL SWEDENBORG. outline even of the philosophy contained in these works. Svvedenborg^s aim, in all his studies, was to demonstrate the existence of Gal and of the human soul. This goal he hoped to reach tlirough a pro- found study of the human body. He was convinced that in the body the soul is imaged, and in the soul God is imaged. By these steps he hoped to discover the way to a clear apprehension of the Divine. Every or- aition to hb claim. He ixwi^ tluit lie wait itodiing but ail iiMtramcnt of the Lord in doing this work. Truth 18 simply an object of mental vision. The liord niert'ly openc tions of the spiritual world and its relation to this world ; descriptions of the inhabitants of other plan- ets, from information gained in the spiritual world, expositions of the prophecies relating to the Last Judgment and the Second Coming of the Lord ; and brief expositions of doctrine. As soon as the "Arcana" was off his hands, Swedenborg elaborated this mat- ter into five treatises : (1) *' The Earths in our Solar System, called Planets, and the Earths in the Starry Heavens ; their Inhabitants, and the Spirits and Angels therefrom, from things heard and seen ;" (2) "The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine, from things heard from heaven ;" (3) " Concerning the White Horse, mentioned in Rev. xix., and con- cerning the Word and its internal or spiritual sense ;" ^. (^4) " On the Last Judgment and Babylon destroyed, thus how all things predicted in Revelation are this day fulfilled; from things heard and seen;" (5) " Heaven and its Wonders, and Hell, from things heard and seen." These he took to London and published in 1758. On the 19th of July, 1759, a fire broke out in Stockholm which swept over a large part of the southern suburbs of the city where Swedenborg's house was situated. That very day, Swedenborg, returning from England, landed at Gottenburg, on the opposite side of Sweden. He was invited by a friend to a large dinner-])arty. About six o'clock he left the room, and returned pale and alarmed. He said that a fire was raging in Stockholm fthree hundred miles away), that the house of one of his friends was destroyed, and his own house threatened. He was anxious until eight o'clock, when he announced that the fire had been stopped only three doors from his own house. The news spread rapidly through the city, and reaching the governor's ears, he sent for Swedenborg, who fully described the fire. Two days later a messenger arrived from Stockholm with the news, whose description was in exact accord with Swedenborg's. A few years after, the philosopher Kant had this story carefully investigated on the spot, and found it abundantly verified by personal testimony. It was probably from this occurrence that Swe- denborg's claim to have intercourse with the spirit- ual world first became widely known. He was now 26 EMANUEL SWEDRNBORQ, visited by many curiosity-hunters, but they received no encouragement. Not long after, the queen, to test him, asked him to tell her a secret which her brother had communicated to her just before his death. A few days later Swedenborg gave her the substance and circumstances of the conversation. The queen turned pale, and declared that none but God and her brother could possibly have known the fact. These and two or three similar occurrences excited great wonder and much public discussion. But Swedenborg carefully refrained from any effort to make converts in this way. He appealed only to the reason or the love of truth, and would have his teachings received on no other ground. ' About this time Swedenborg seems to have entered more actively into public life than ever before. He took a prominent part in the business of the Diet of 1760-61 . Count von Hopken testifies that " the most solid memorials, and the best penned at the Diet of 1761, on matters of finance, were presented by him. In one of these he refuted a large work in quarto on the same subject, quoted all the corresponding pas- sages of it, and all this in less than one sheet." Thus at the very time when Swedenborg's mental soundness was being assailed (beciuise of his claim to have intercourse with the spiritual world, which was now widely discussed and criticised), we find him taking a specially active and prominent part in public affairs, and re-establishing in the public mind EMANUEL SWEDENBORG. 27 his reputation for exceptional wisdom and foresight in all practical matters. This may have been a mere coincidence. Or it may have been that Sweden- borg thought best to give in this way a practical refutation of these suspicions and aspersions. Swe- denborg was now (in 1761) seventy -three years of age, and this seems to have been his last active par- ticipation in public affairs. During this period there was no interruption of his other labors. The largest of the works that he left unpublished, though evidently intended for publication, was the " Apocalypse Explained." The English translation fills six large octavo volumes. It is a spiritual exposition of the book of Kevela- tion. This work was probably written mainly, if not entirely, in London, between the spring of 1758 and the summer of 1759. There are two MSS. of it, one a rough draft, the other a clear copy ready for the printer, the title-page of Vol. I. bearing the intended imprint, "London, 1759." Towards the latter part of the work the expositions become briefer, and doctrinal subjects are discussed in each para- graph, which finally run into regular treatises, form- ing a sort of appendix to the work. These and a few other small treatises, left unpublished, fill out Swedenborg's achievements in 1759-60. It is a significant fact that from 1759, when Swe- denborg's claim to have intercourse with the spiritual world became generally known, down to 1766, with the exception of one small treatise of twenty-eight "— lfrr 28 EMANUEL SWEDENBORO. EMANUEL SWEDENBORO. 29 < ! pages, he published no detailed accounts of his ex- periences in the spiritual world. It was during this period of seven years that his chief works on purely doctrinal subjects were written and published. In 1761-62, Swedenborg wrote four doctrinal treatises, " The Doctrine of the Lord," " The Doc- trine of Sacred Scripture," " Tlie Doctrine of Life," and " The Doctrine of Faith." The translations of these have generally been published in one volume, entitled " The Four Doctrines." It is another significant f\ct that during the five years from 1758 to 1763, Swedenborg published nothing, and that when, in 1762, the first of the above treatises was ready for the printer, he went, not-to London, where his previous works had been issued, but to Amsterdam, where all the remainder of his works were published, with the single ex- ception of a small philosophical tract, printed at London in 1769. The probable reason for this was .he derisive way in which both his previous works and his claim had been treated, not only in Sweden but also in England. Swedenborg seems to have been at Amsterdam during the greater part of 1762, where he completed " The Four Doctrines." He was back in Stockholm at the beginning of 1763, but returned to Amsterdam in June of that year, when he found " The Four Doctrines" ready for delivery. As soon as " The Four Doctrines" were completed, Swedenborg wrote two connected treatises, "On the Divine Love" and " On the Divine Wisdom," which he left unpublished. But before "he returned to Amsterdam, in June, 1763, he had ready one of his most important works, entitled " Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Love and the Divine Wis- dom," which was published in the autumn of that year. It was immediately followed, in 1764, by " Angelic Wisdom concerning Divine Providence." These works are a discussion of the fundamental principles of. theology. The first treats of the op- erations of the Divine Love and Wisdom in creating and sustaining the universe, the second, of its opera- tions in the creation and government of the human race. Assuming that the Divine end in creation is a heaven of free and rational beings, it shows how all things in human history are consistent with that end. As soon as this last work was through the press, Swedenborg returned home by the way of London and Copenhagen, where he presented these doctrinal treatises to the public libraries. He reached Stock- holm in August, 1764. He now set at work on a new and briefer ex- position of the Apocalypse, called " The Apocalypse Revealed," showing that its predictions relate in a special sense to the last judgment and the establish- ment of a new Christian Dispensation. He now begins again to publish accounts of his experiences in the spiritual world. These " Memorabilia" are appended to each of the chapters of this and hk subsec^uent works, ■s 30 EMANUEL SWEDENBORO. EMANUEL SWEDENBORG, 31 This work on the Apocalypse occupied his time from August, 1764, until the summer of ih^ next year, when he again embarked for Amsterdam, where the work was published in a large quarto volume of 629 pages. The English translation fills two octavo volumes. The work was issued in the spring of 1766, after which Swedenborg went to England for a few months, and reached Stockholm in September. On his return, Swedenborg took up the doctrine of conjugial love, which is fundamental in his system, since that love has its origin in the union of love and wisdom in the Lord Himself. According to his usual custom, he wrote a preliminary work, only the index of which has come down to us; but from that it appears that the work contained over two thousand paragraphs. Out of this he constructed the work he published under the title " The Delights of Wisdom relating to Conjugial Love;" to which is added the " Pleasures of Insanity relating to Scortatory Love. By Emanuel Swedenborg, a Swede." This was the first of his theological works on the title-page of which the author's name appeared. He appends to it, moreover, a list of his previous works, thereby formally acknowledging the authorship, which, how- ever, he had never attempted to conceal. A year and a half was consumed in the prepara- tion of this work ; that is, from the autumn of 1766 to the spring of 1768. When it was completed Swe- denborg was eighty years of age. Again he went to Amsterdam to superintend the printing of the work. I It was issued in the autumn of that year, and had a larger inimediate sale than any of his previous works. At the end of the work on "Conjugial Love," Swedenborg announces the publication, within two years, of a complete statement of '^ the Doctrine of the New Church predicted by the Lord in the Apocalypse." To tliis task he now turned. But foreseeing the extent of tlie work, he concluded to publish first a synopsis of it. This came from the press a few months after " Conjugial Love," under the title " A Brief Exposition of the Doctrine of the New Church, which is meant by the New Jerusalem in the Apocalypse." The English translation fills eighty-six octavo pages. This work was sent by the author to all the clergy in Holland. After the publication of this work, in April, 1769, Swedenborg left Amsterdam for Paris, where he in- tended to issue an edition of the "Brief Exposition," which he seemed to regard as the theological platform on which the New Dispensation was to rest. From Paris he went to London, and there procured the publication of the work in English. He also pub- lished there at this time a small philosophical tract on " The Intercourse between the Soul and the Body." This treatise is supposed tx) have been written in reply to a letter from Immanuel Kant. By October, Swedenborg had reached Stockholm. The next eight months were devoted to the first draught of the work, which is, as it were, the keystone of his 32 EMANUEL SWEDENBORQ, system. This he completed on the nineteenth of June of the next year (1770). A month later he left Stockholm for the last time (he was now eighty-two years old), to publish this work at Amsterdam. Here he seems to have largely rewritten it. It was some nine or ten months in passing through the press, and was published at the end of June, 1771, under the title of "The True Christian Religion, containing the Whole Theology of the New Church, which is foretold by the Lord in Daniel vii. 13, 14, and in Revelation xxi. 1, 2. By Emanuel Swedenborg, servant of the Lord Jesus Christ." It was issued in a large quarto volume of 541 pages. The English translation fills nearly 850 pages octavo. On the publication of this work Swedenborg left Amsterdam for London, where he spent the winter, writing a few things which he left in manuscript. Here he died on the 29th of March, 1772, at the age of eiglity-four. PHILADELPHIA: AMKinCAN NEW CHURCH TRACT AND PUBLICATION SOCIETY, Twenty-Second and Chestnut Stbeets. HEW CHORCH BOARD OF PUBLICATION, Ho. 20 COOPER UNION, NEW TORI. BOSTON: MASSACHUSETTS NEW CHURCH UNION, 169 TREMONT STREET. Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia. i